Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Let's face it, an eReader is no more a tablet than it is a paper book. Many reviews here are extremely helpful, but only for determining whether one should buy a Kindle or not in the first place--comparison between the Kindle Paperwhite and older models of Kindle are, at the moment, lacking. For the past couple of years I have been doing all of my reading on a Kindle Keyboard 3G, Free 3G + Wi-Fi, 6" E Ink Display, and I've had a chance to use a Kindle, Wi-Fi, 6" E Ink Display - includes Special Offers & Sponsored Screensavers extensively. Comparing the new Kindle Paperwhite to the two previous models, I find the Paperwhite to be a moderate improvement, but also somewhat disappointing. The Paperwhite is being advertised as having three distinguishing features compared to older Kindles. These are better contrast, better fonts, and a front-lit display which does not cause significant battery issues. Going through each of these features, I will say: CONTRAST: The new contrast is a noticeable improvement and, more importantly, optional. In the promotional photographs of the Paperwhite, the background is always a jarring, bleached-paper shade of white. While this high contrast is great for reading in dark rooms, I was worried that it would also cause eye strain to stare at it for long periods. Luckily, you are not forced to stare at the white screen if you do not want to. If you turn the lighting down significantly, the Paperwhite will have a greyish background that is very similar to that of the old models. Some may consider this a negative, but I personally am quite happy. I've grown very attached to the background of my old Kindle, and being able to switch to it is a big relief! FONTS: I don't have much to say about this. There are new fonts and options available, which is always a bonus. You may choose between Baskerville, Caecilia, Caecelia Condensed, Futura, Helvetica, and Palatino. LIGHTING: Let's be honest; if you are considering buying a Kindle Paperwhite when you already own a Kindle, this is the reason why. The lighting is front-lit rather than back-lit, which means that you basically have a built in booklight rather than a jarring tablet-like glow. Unfortunately, the lighting is not perfect. There are visible dark smudges at the bottom of my screen, which are extremely distracting and disappointing. I will probably get used to them, eventually, but my heart sank when I realized that the Paperwhite's light is "good enough" rather than simply "good." Furthermore, Amazon advertises that the Paperwhite will have the same battery life with the light set to 10 as the older models had without a light. I'm sure this is true, however, what they failed to mention was that "10" is not the maximum brightness. The maximum is actually 24, leaving 10 to be a fairly dim setting. 24 is such an odd number that I cannot help but wonder if the scale was skewed simply so that they could advertise the battery life with "10" lighting. On the other hand, 24 is actually extremely bright, acting almost like a flashlight coming from your Kindle. Even 10 is readable in low light conditions. The light appears to always be on, and 0 provides a faint illumination that can only be seen in a dark room--enough to read by if your eyes have adjusted, but dim enough to not be disruptive to other people. Overall, I bought the Paperwhite purely for the light, and the light -- despite its drawbacks -- is good enough that I will not be returning it. Other Thoughts: I've covered the reasons why a Paperwhite is better than a regular Kindle, but sadly there are also reasons why it is worse. Specifically, SOUND: The Paperwhite has no sound whatsoever. That means no text-to-speech, no blind-accessible menu options, no playing your audiobooks from Audible. I am incredibly disappointed that these features have been gutted, presumably done to make room for the larger battery without increasing the size or weight of the model. SPACE: The Paperwhite only has 2 gigs of space available rather than the 4 gigs in previous models. I suppose that, with the ability to play audiobooks removed, one does not need very much space. Still, it is a step down, and should be noted as such. BUTTONS: The Paperwhite only comes with a touch screen. This means no physical buttons of any kind, including the forward/back buttons that I strongly prefer. If you already have a Kindle Touch, this is not a problem, but if you prefer the older models then you are simply out of luck here. To the Paperwhite's credit, page navigation with the touch is very easy. Simply tapping anywhere in the right part of the screen will take you forward, and tapping by the leftmost edge will take you back. If you prefer, you can swipe forward or back anywhere on the screen. To navigate your list of books you MUST swipe, as tapping is disabled outside of books. Overall, I'm giving the Paperwhite 4 stars because it is still an eReader, and eReaders are an amazing step up from paper books or tablets. The light feature, while flawed, is a large qualify of life improvement. Having said all of that, if you currently own a Kindle and are considering upgrading, I would only give the Paperwhite 3 stars because it simply is not that big of an improvement for the price, and the lighting technology is still not yet perfect.